Various techniques have been developed for joining a cover material to a substrate, particularly for use in automotive seat fabrication. U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,199, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, shows a method that utilizes steam to melt an adhesive film in order to bond a cloth fabric layer to a foam pad. In this method, the steam penetrates the fabric layer to activate the adhesive film.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,097, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated by reference, shows a method that utilizes a magnetic flux to melt an adhesive film containing ferromagnetic particles to bond a fabric or trim cover to a foam cushion. An oscillatory radio frequency generator is used to energize copper coil tubing to produce the magnetic flux. The magnetic flux induces eddy currents in the ferromagnetic particles in order to generate heat to activate the adhesive film.